Spindles are commonly used for winding and unwinding roll paper products (e.g., toilet paper, paper towels). Numerous designs for spindles and dispensers have been developed over the years. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,391,326, 1,778,856, 2,209,471, 2,289,453, 2,289,519, 2,331,743, 2,621,867, 2,762,575, 3,770,221, 4,212,434, 4,422,585, 4,447,015, 5,370,336, 5,669,576, 5,669,576, 6,422,505, D0,340,822, International Patent Application Publication No. WO 2009/027873, and Great Britain Patent No. 731449.
These and all other extrinsic materials discussed herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,576 to Moody describes a spindle with a rotating sleeve (i.e., the sleeve rotates with respect to the spindle's two ends). The spindle can be used in a vertical dispenser housing that holds two rolls of paper product. The spindle is specifically designed for coreless rolls of toilet paper. As used herein, “coreless” means a roll of product having no separate core material (e.g., the cardboard core in household toilet paper rolls). “Coreless” also generally implies that the center aperture of the roll of product is less than that of a similar size roll having a core, although this may not always be the case. Since the center aperture of coreless roll products tends to collapse when the roll is mostly depleted, it is desirous that the spindle frictionally engage the center aperture (e.g., “interference fit”) in order to achieve complete depletion of the roll. This, in turn, requires that the spindle's middle rotate with respect to the spindle's end. The spindle in Moody is particularly useful because it allows coreless rolls to be used with dispensers that were originally designed for core rolls.
Unfortunately, the spindle in Moody is complex and requires at least four separate parts. Furthermore, assembling the spindle requires many steps, which increases the time required to re-load the spindle with a new roll of paper product. Moody and all other known prior art have failed to provide a simple design for a spindle having rotating ends. It has yet to be appreciated that such a spindle can be assembled with three parts and in one easy step.
Moody also discloses an adapter comprising a bottom block with upward protrusions (see Moody at FIGS. 6 and 12, part no. 90), which is useful for adapting dispensers originally designed for use with core rolls to be used with coreless rolls. Since coreless rolls generally have a smaller center aperture diameter than core rolls, the trigger mechanism in the dispenser is activated prematurely when coreless rolls are used, causing the secondary roll to drop down before the primary roll is fully depleted. The upward protrusions raise a coreless roll of paper product up to an appropriate height, thus preventing premature activation of the trigger mechanism when coreless paper products are used. Unfortunately, the block and protrusions must come in direct contact with the roll, which adds friction to the unwinding of a roll of paper product. This friction can lead to premature breakage of a web of paper product. Moody and all other known prior art fail to provide an upward protrusion that prevents premature activation of a trigger mechanism, without adding substantial friction to the unwinding of the rolls of paper products.
Thus, there is still a need for improved spindles and adapters.